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Microsoft is finally launchingWindows 10 on July 29th, and there's no better time to talk a walk down memory lane with the company that changed computing forever.
Through this series of photosof bothMicrosoft's team and its innovative software,take a look back at Microsoft's first 25 years, from Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerqueall the way through Gates' resignation from the CEO job in 2000.
This is the history of Microsoft in photos.
Microsoft was founded on April 4th, 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico by two childhood friends with an interest in computers Washington State University dropout Paul Allen (left) and Harvard dropout Bill Gates (right
This inauspicious building was Microsoft's first headquarters in Albuquerque. They stayed here from 1975 to 1979, when they then moved toBellevue, Washington,as they had too much trouble finding employees willing to move to New Mexico.
Fun fact: Microsoft wasn't actually their first company. The original Gates/Allen collaboration was Traf-O-Data in 1972, a computer to read information from city traffic counters and feed it to traffic engineers. It was only moderately successful, but it paved the way for Microsoft.
Microsoft's first product ever was a version of the programming language BASIC for the Altair 8800 "microcomputer," released in 1975 one of the earliest versions of what we now know as the personal computer, or the PC. Allen and Gates got the idea after reading about the machine in Popular Mechanics magazine.
Microsoft continued in the BASIC market for a while, growing slowly but steadily. It was during this time, circa 1977, that Bill Gates got pulled over for a traffic violation, resulting in this classic mugshot.
By 1978, the Microsoft team was
By 1978, Microsoft was an eleven-person company. This picture often gets passed around with the caption "Would you have invested?" Because, well, look at them.
In 1980, not long after Microsoft moved to Washington, IBM needed someone to make an operating system for its forthcoming IBM PC. Microsoft stepped in with the text-based MS-DOS, or the Microsoft Disk Operating System which, funnily enough, it didn't develop itself, instead buying the license to the technology from a computer manufacturer called Seattle Computer Works. The IBM PC would go on to rule the market, and Microsoft made the operating system for it.
Something else happened in 1980: Bill Gates hired a former Harvard classmate named Steve Ballmer. This will be important later. Allen, for his part, left Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkin's disease.
This is also around when Microsoft started to get seriously noticed by the world (and the media). In 1986, Microsoft went public with an IPO that made Bill Gates, at least, $350 million dollars.
In 1985, not long before the IPO, Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released. It was originally intended as a graphical interface for the text-based MS-DOS to make it easier for people to use.
Windows 2.0, released in 1987, was a relatively minor update. But the best was yet to come: Windows 3.0 would be the operating system that would make Microsoft a household name. In 1990, Microsoft became the first software company to do $1 billion in annual sales.
1990's much-gussied-up Windows 3.0, followed by 1992's Windows 3.1, was a massive hit, selling two million copies in the first two years. Windows 3.0 was also the first appearance of Windows classic games like Minesweeper and Solitaire.
Microsoft Office 4.0, running on Windows 3.1
But Windows 3.0 wasn't the only Microsoft product launch of 1990: The first version of Microsoft Office came out around the same time, marking the first time the world was introduced to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel kicking off a dynasty that's run continuously for the last 26 years.
Steve Jobs, left, and Bill Gates, right, circa 1991.
At this point, Microsoft was the de facto king of personal computers. IBM set the standard for PC compatibility, and Microsoft Windows ran on all of them. The only competition was with Apple, whose Macintosh line of computers had a comparatively small but loyal fanbase. While they'd become friends later down the road, Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs were bitter business rivals.
Bill Gates announces Windows 95.
Windows 95 was a tremendous overhaul to the operating system, and had a ton of hype leading up to its August 24, 1995 release. People even threw barbecues and parties to commemorate the launch (seriously). The commercials features the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" to highlight the new operating system's then-revolutionary Start button.
Gates had identified the Internet as a coming source of much change in the market in his famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo to staff, and saw Windows 95 as a grand entrance to the market. It included a trial of The Microsoft Network, an Internet service and competitor to AOL. The Internet Explorer web browser would come later, in a Windows 95 update.
Bill Gates gives his deposition during the landmark United States v. Microsoft case.
Those Internet initiatives got Microsoft into some hot water in 1998, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit saying that by packaging a web browser and Internet Service Provider in with Windows 95, it was risking becoming a monopoly. Ultimately, Microsoft was required to share some of its code with third-party developers, and submit itself to scrutiny, but there were little other long-term consequences.
Ballmer becomes President of Microsoft
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, in an Austin Powers parody made for Microsoft employees.
In 1998, two things happened: Microsoft released Windows 98, a small update to the operating system that added more Internet-enabled features. And Steve Ballmer, Gates' old classmate, was appointed President of Microsoft.
The late '90ssaw Microsoft expand in a lot of different directions. In 1996, Microsoft and NBC launched MSNBC, a joint news venture that's still with us today. It also released Windows CE, a version of the operating system meant for personal digital assistants and other tiny computers more than a decade before the iPhone.
On January 13, 2000, Gates handed the CEO role to Ballmer, taking instead the new title of "Chief Software Architect."
Ballmer would go on to lead the company from 2000 to 2014, a time would see great change the resurgence of Apple, the rise of Google, and the fall of the PC would all have drastic effects on the company.
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsofts-history-in-photos-2015-7
43 visitors
Microsoft from its beginnings to where it is today in pictures.
A couple of self-made men turned their obsession with technology into the future that is our current reality and it continues to change on a daily basis.
Beautiful photography as well.
Enjoy
Great series of photos and information RIO.
Check you title, orld - world?
es, t's he orld f icrosoft n ictures. reat ost, obert.
Buzz
I needed that chuckle thanks - I guess I type like I sometimes think rat-tat-tat instead of whirr!
Dean
It was not as good as it was billed for sure, but I wouldn't rate is as horrible
Thanks for the feedback
Kavika
Glad you liked the picture and thanks for the heads up on the typo
Fixed it
I don't know that I'm looking so forward to the update to Windows 10, but maybe it will be better than Windows 8. I can't find doodly squat on Windows 8, and still have to do searches to discover the nuts and bolts of how my computer works...
I wonder what happened to Windows 9?
Thanks, RIO, for a real trip down memory lane!
Windows 9 was scrapped in favor of a more complete updated product in Windows 10.
My wife hated Windows 8 when she first got it on her new computer but has come to like it for use of use and the ability to group together the sites and apps she uses the most.
She did the tutorial and she also had my son (much more a computer wiz than I) spend some time with her answering questions.
One can be both lucky and self-made don't you think?
Most success has an element of luck to it, along with vision an hard work
I still use XP with its service pacs and wish Microsoft would come up with a better system that doesn't have all the bugs and difficulty in use of its subsequent forms.
Buzz
I am using7 on one laptop and my wife is using 8 and both are working quite well for our needs.
I am going to take the plunge on 10 first and if I survive she is will likely follow, besides my son is coming home for a couple of weeks this fall and can teach the old folks a thing or two about 10